She conjured up treats, trickled in exotic recipes and spurred a culinary dalliance on television when celebrity chefs were yet to dot the map. Karen Anand’s identity has been wedded to food and its facets. A gourmet chef, television anchor, food writer, food consultant, a restaurateur for a brief while — no food segment is untouched by Karen.
She was in the Capital for “Men Can Cook,” a “fun cookery contest” to “encourage men to cook.” Her last book “Simple Cooking for Smart Men” too treaded on the subject. “Usually, if men cook, it’s just on the weekends,” says Karen. The mission, it seems, is to make them shake off their reluctance to discover the kitchen.
Quick results
Karen is the author of over a dozen cookery books, almost all aimed at making cooking simple for men and women. “I love writing and television shows. The end result comes in quickly,” says Karen. However, she says, finding a foothold in the food sector did not come smoothly in the 1990s. “There was a time when I used to work 12 to 14 hours a day. Not anymore,” she reminds. Karen slips in details on the long hours in office and research, as many notice only the glamour of being a gourmet specialist.
She says, “It is out of interest” that she ventured into the field of food. “I have never done it as a business plan,” she adds. On the perception of fine dining and gourmet adventures of Indians, Karen says there has been a marked change over the past decade. “We have become far more experimental now, but we still tend to associate fine dining with European food,” says Karen. Our fetish for foreign cuisines, she says is seen in the popularity of Chinese and Italian food here. Her point was proved when she was served pasta by a housewife during her visit to Moradabad recently.
Engaged with writing always, next up her sleeve is a book on Indian recipes. She has travelled to different regions and talked to people to collect material for the book. But she maintains working on Indian cuisine is tough as little documentation is available.
